1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to suture clip tongs or a surgical stapler having a main portion and a grip portion pivotally connected to the main portion. The main portion of the tongs includes a magazine composed of two sectional members which together form an elongated guide duct having an essentially U-shaped cross-section for a supply of essentially U-shaped suture clips or surgical staples. The magazine further includes a slide member slidable in the guide duct and a clip feed spring which biases the slide member toward a clip discharge opening of the guide duct. The tongs have a stop arranged in front of the clip discharge opening for limiting the delivery path of the clips. A clip bending mechanism actuated by the grip portion of the tongs includes an anvil arranged in the region of the clip discharge opening of the magazine and a bending die movably guided in the main portion of the tongs relative to the anvil.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Suture clip tongs of this type are known from European application No. 142 225. In these suture clip tongs, not only the bending die but also the anvil is mounted in the main portion of the tongs. The anvil forms the stop which prevents the unintentional discharge of suture clips at the clip discharge opening of the magazine. The magazine is not replaceable. As a result, the suture clip tongs cannot be reloaded during an operation once the supply of clips available in the magazine has been used up. A complete second pair of suture clip tongs must be available, so that several complete suture clip tongs must be sterilized after the operation. Moreover, the known suture clip tongs are structurally relatively complicated.
It is also known in the art to manufacture suture clip tongs which are used only once and are thrown away after use. However, this solution is relatively expensive because suture clips tongs of this type, even when designed for single use only, are relatively complicated.
It is, therefore, the primary object of the present invention to provide structurally simple suture clip tongs in which the magazine is replaceable during use, so that the suture clip tongs can be reloaded even during an operation with a new supply of suture clips. Furthermore, it is to be ensured that the magazine can be loaded with suture clips in a very simple manner.